Finding Aids at the American Heritage Center

Welcome to the American Heritage Center’s finding aids! What is a finding aid you ask? Finding aids are like a table of contents for the boxes of an archival collection. Finding aids help folks find out information about specific collections we have and what materials are contained in the collection. Archivists create these aids so researchers can figure out if the collection is related to their work.

As archivists finish processing the collection, they create the aids. But the AHC collections are ever growing and they’re always adding more ‘tables of contents.’ So the AHC thought they’d showcase what’s getting added so you know what their archivists are working on.

The strengths of the AHC collections include Wyoming and the American West, politics and public policy, ranching and energy, entertainment and popular culture, industry, transportation, and military history. The documents and archives they hold serve as raw data for scholarship and heritage work, and support thriving communities of place, identity, and interest in Wyoming and beyond.

These and other AHC collections can be discovered in the University of Wyoming Libraries catalog. The AHC is open for walk-in research Mondays 10 am – 7 pm and Tuesdays through Fridays 8 am – 5 pm. For distance research assistance please contact our reference department at ahcref@uwyo.edu or 307-766-3756.

The AHC offers travel grants to help defray the costs of travel to Laramie for research. Travel grant applications are due by April 15, 2019.

The American Heritage Center hopes to make their finding aids a regular feature they’ll run on their blog every four to six weeks.